Ogoni people

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Ogoniland
)
Ogoni
Annang, Oron

The Ogonis are a people in the

Rivers South-East senatorial district of Rivers State, in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria.[2][3] They number just over 2 million and live in a 1,050-square-kilometre (404-square-mile) homeland which they also refer to as Ogoniland. They share common oil-related environmental problems with the Ijaw people
of the Niger Delta.

The

Shell Oil, led by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), which is also a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization
(UNPO).

Geography

The territory is located in

Tai. Ogoniland is divided into the Five kingdoms: Babbe, Gokana, Ken-Khana, Nyo-Khana and Tai. Nyo-Khana is on the East while Ken-Khana is on the west.[4]

Languages

Main article: Ogoni languages

There are multiple languages spoken by the Ogonis. The largest is Khana, which mutually intelligible with the dialects of the other kingdoms, Gokana, Tai (Tẹẹ), and Baen Ogoi[5] part of the linguistic diversity of the Niger Delta.

History

According to oral tradition, the Ogoni people migrated from

eastern Niger Delta
region and getting absorbed into the already existing Igbo and Ijaw population. The name "Ogoni" originated from the Ibani/Ijaw word- Igoni, which means strangers. Linguistic calculations ns

People on the Guinea coast, the Ogonis have an internal political structure subject to community-by-community arrangement, including appointment of chiefs and community development bodies, some recognized by the government and others not. They survived the period of the slave trade in relative isolation and did not lose any of their members to enslavement.[citation needed] After Nigeria was colonized by the British in 1885, British soldiers arrived in Ogoni by 1901. Major resistance to their presence continued through 1914.

The Ogoni were integrated into a succession of economic systems at a pace that was extremely rapid and exacted a great toll from them. At the turn of the twentieth century, “the world to them did not extend beyond the next three or four villages”, but that soon changed. Ken Saro-Wiwa, the late president of MOSOP, described the transition this way: “if you then think that within the space of seventy years they were struck by the combined forces of modernity, colonialism, the money economy, indigenous colonialism and then the Nigerian Civil War, and that they had to adjust to these forces without adequate preparation or direction, you will appreciate the bafflement of the Ogoni people and the subsequent confusion engendered in the society.”[7]

Nationalism

This section is an excerpt from Ogoni nationalism.[edit]
Ogoni Flag designed by the M.O.S.O.P.

Ogoniland. They share common oil-related environmental problems with the Ijaw people
of Niger Delta.

The Ogoni rose to international attention after a massive public protest campaign against
non-violent methods to promote democratic principles assist Ogoni people pursue rights of self-determination in environmental issues in the Niger Delta, cultural rights and practices for Ogoni people.[10]

Human rights violations

The Ogoni people have been victims of

British government, found a commercially viable oil field on the Niger Delta and began oil production in 1958. In a 15-year period from 1976 to 1991 there were reportedly 2,976 oil spills of about 2.1 million barrels of oil in Ogoniland, accounting for about 40% of the total oil spills of the Royal Dutch/Shell company worldwide.[11]

In 1990, under the leadership of activist and environmentalist

MOSOP) planned to take action against the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the oil companies. In October 1990, MOSOP presented The Ogoni Bill of Rights to the government. The Bill hoped to gain political and economic autonomy for the Ogoni people, leaving them in control of the natural resources of Ogoniland protecting against further land degradation.[12]
The movement lost steam in 1994 after Saro-Wiwa and several other MOSOP leaders were executed by the Nigerian government.

In 1993, following protests that were designed to stop contractors from laying a new pipeline for Shell, the Mobile Police raided the area to quell the unrest. In the chaos that followed, it has been alleged that 27 villages were raided, resulting in the death of 2,000 Ogoni people and displacement of 80,000.[13][14][15][16]

Environmental restoration

In a 2011 assessment of over 200 locations in Ogoniland by the United Nations Environment Programme (

WHO guidelines.[17]

UNEP estimated that it could take up to 30 years to rehabilitate Ogoniland to its full potential and that the first five years of rehabilitation would require funding of about US$1 billion. In 2012, the Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources, Deizani Alison-Madueke, announced the establishment of the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project, which intends to follow the UNEP report suggestions of Ogoniland to prevent further degradation.[18]

A trial project in the region was able to achieve mangrove restoration in one of the significant waterways Bodo Creek which helped improve soil and water quality.[19]

Notable people

Notes

  1. ^ Contributors. https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/ng%7Dogoni.html. “The Ogoni People(Nigeria)”.2015.
  2. ^ "The Ogoni of Nigeria". ResearchGate. Retrieved 2021-09-11.
  3. ^ a b "Ogoni | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  4. S2CID 225773285
    .
  5. ^ "Browse by Language Family". Ethnologue. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  6. ^ "AFRICA | 101 Last Tribes - Ogoni people". www.101lasttribes.com. Retrieved 2021-09-11.
  7. ^ Quotes from Ken Saro-Wiwa, "Letter to Ogoni Youth."
  8. ^ "Ogoni". unpo.org. Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization. March 25, 2008. Retrieved December 13, 2014.
  9. ^ "Ogoni: Oral Intervention on the Human Rights Situation of States and Territories threatened with Ex". unpo.org. Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization. Retrieved December 19, 2014.
  10. ^ "About Us - Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP)". Archived from the original on 2010-04-25. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
  11. ^ Crayford, Steven (1 April 1996). "Ogoni Uprising". Africa Today. 2. 42 (Conflict and Conflict Resolution in Africa): 183–197.
  12. ^ The Movement of the Survival of the Ogoni People. "Ogoni Bill of Rights". Saros International Publishers.
  13. ^ David Kupfer, "Worldwide Shell boycott", The Progressive, 1996
  14. ^ PBS documentary, The New Americans: The Ogoni Refugees
  15. ^ Ken Saro-Wiwa, "Genocide in Nigeria: The Ogoni Tragedy"
  16. ^ Bogumil Terminski, Oil-Induced Displacement and Resettlement: Social Problem and Human Rights Issue Archived 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ United Nations Environment Programme (August 4, 2011). "UNEP Ogoniland Oil Assessment Reveals Extent of Environmental Contamination and Threats to Human Health". UNEP News Center.
  18. ^ United Nations Environment Programme (August 1, 2012). "UNEP Welcomes Nigerian Governments Green Light for Ogoniland Oil Clean-Up". UNEP News Center.
  19. S2CID 89436150
    .
  20. ^ Teniente, Davio (March 8, 2014). "hon-tn-paul-birabi-the-forgotten-nigerian-nationalist". www.thenigerianvoice.com. p. 1. Retrieved May 22, 2023.
  21. ^ Isuwa, Sunday (2023-03-13). "Magnus Abe Remains Our Gov'ship Candidate In Rivers – SDP". Retrieved 2023-04-29.

References

  • Brosnahan, L.F. 1967. A word list of the Gokana dialect of Ogoni. Journal of West African Languages, 143-52.
  • Hyman, L.M. 1982. The representation of nasality in Gokana. In: The structure of phonological representations. ed. H. van der Hulst & Norval Smith. 111–130. Dordrecht: Foris.
  • Hyman, L.M. 1983. Are there syllables in Gokana? In: Current issues in African linguistics, 2. Kaye et al. 171–179. Dordrecht: Foris.
  • Ikoro, S.M. 1989. Segmental phonology and lexicon of Proto-Keggoid. University of Port Harcourt: M.A. thesis.
  • Ikoro, S.M. 1996. The Kana language. Leiden: CNWS.
  • Jeffreys, M.D.W. 1947. Ogoni Pottery. Man, 47: 81–83.
  • Piagbo, B.S. 1981. A comparison of the sounds of English and Kana. B.A. project, University of Port Harcourt.
  • Thomas, N.W. 1914. Specimens of languages from Southern Nigeria. London: Harrison & Sons.
  • Vopnu, S.K. 1991. Phonological Processes and Syllable Structures in Gokana. M.A. Department of Linguistics and Nigerian Languages, University of Port Harcourt.
  • Vọbnu, S.K. 2001. Origin and languages of Ogoni people. Boori, KHALGA: Ogoni Languages and Bible Center.
  • Williamson, K. 1985. How to become a Kwa language. In Linguistics and Philosophy. Essays in Honor of Ruben S. Wells. eds. A. Makkai and A. Melby. Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 42. Benjamins, Amsterdam.
  • Wolff, H. 1959. Niger Delta languages I: classification. Anthropological Linguistics, 1(8):32–35.
  • Wolff, H. 1964. Synopsis of the Ogoni languages. Journal of African languages, 3:38–51.
  • Zua, B.A. 1987. The noun phrase in Gokana. B.A. project, University of Port Harcourt.


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